Gemini overtakes ChatGPT on App Store, as its Nano Banana AI model drives downloads up 45% (techcrunch.com)

Google’s Gemini app has surged to No. 1 on the App Store after the August rollout of its Nano Banana image-editing model, driving a 45% month-over-month jump in downloads. Appfigures data shows Gemini pulled in 12.6 million downloads so far in September (vs. 8.7 million in August) and reached the top spot on Sept. 12, displacing OpenAI’s ChatGPT to No. 2; on Google Play it climbed to No. 2 while ChatGPT remains No. 1. Google executives say Nano Banana brought 23 million first-time users who’ve shared over 500 million images, and the app’s monetization has spiked—Gemini generated $1.6M on iOS in August (part of $6.3M YTD), a 1,291% increase from January’s $115k, with September already contributing $792k. For the AI/ML community, this is a concrete example of how verticalized, multimodal models that excel at practical image-editing workflows can drive mainstream adoption, engagement and revenue far faster than generic chat interfaces alone. Technically, Nano Banana’s success highlights the value of specialized models and productization (UI/UX, fast inference, safety/moderation pipelines) in winning consumer market share, while also raising operational implications—higher inference costs, the need for robust content-moderation and provenance tools, and competitive pressure to optimize latency, on-device processing, and monetization design.